An extremely rare brown and white panda was recently spotted in the Qinling region of China. Only 7 such examples of this pigmentation have been seen in the past 25 years, suggesting that the low numbers of giant pandas have lead to inbreeding. This suggestion stems from the nature of this particular sort of pigmentation, which has been hypothesized to only be inherited when both parents carry the gene; in other words, the pigmentation is a recessive trait.
While this may contradict the apparently maintained genetic diversity revealed in the giant panda genome published last month in Nature, it is still an important question to consider and investigate. If inbreeding is indeed occurring, and genetic diversity being reduced due to that, it may leave the giant panda species susceptible to widespread disease in the future (like the captive tiger and lion species).
I’ll be sure to post updates on this topic when the current research into the inheritance of brown and white pigmented pandas is published.
Read an in-depth article at Nature: Mystery of the brown giant panda deepens
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3 Comments
Giant pandas are rare in the wild—WWF estimates the population is around 1600—but seeing a giant panda with brown fur instead of black.
Laith Salma
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